Such connectors are preferably used in portable communication devices, such as mobile phones or analogous devices. Usually, such devices are very small and easy to handle, so that there is little space for input/output connectors (which are also referred to as I/O connectors), which, for this reason, are surface mounted on a printed circuit card according to the SMD (surface mounted device) technique. Such connectors constitute mechanical interfaces for the connection of various peripheral devices, such as, for example, data transmission modems. The connectors, the dimensions of which are very small, have to be positioned precisely during mounting on the printed circuit card. In addition, they have to withstand strong mechanical demands on the life of the mobile phone and, if need be, they have to establish a good electrical connection between the connector and a complementary connector.
It has thus turned out that the demands pointed out above can be well satisfied if the connection side of the connector coincides essentially with the plane of the printed circuit card. In addition, it is indispensable that the fixing surface of the connector be reproducible.
Known from the document U.S. Pat. No. 6,000,953 is an I/O connector that uses, for the precise positioning of the connector, two L-shaped, removable holding clips, which are placed on the sides and at each end of which a projection is cut out by stamping. During the mounting or positioning of it, only these two projections make contact with the printed circuit card, so that the connector can be mounted in place in a way that permits pivoting. During the pivoting, the lowest contact pin of the connector is the first to reach the surface of the card and, together with the projections, makes up a tripod that defines the connection face of the connector.
Here, it is particularly disadvantageous that, on account of the flexibility of the connector contact pins, there is a longitudinal inclination with respect to the card, which is sometimes large and sometimes small. In addition, the reproducibility of this connection face makes it necessary to have contact plugs that are very precise in terms of form and length. Very narrow tolerance ranges also have to be observed for the lengthwise positioning of the pins in the housing. This inevitably increases the production costs of such a connector. In addition, it needs to be mentioned that the heights of the projections, obtained by stamping, are subject to great variation. In the prior art, this imprecision is not noteworthy owing to the fact that the heights of the projections are small in relation to their spacing. However, these variations do become noticeable if narrow I/O connectors are involved (for example, connectors that support only a few connections), so that, as the longitudinal inclination increases, a lateral wiggle becomes noticeable. The holding clips, which would also be poorly or falsely mounted laterally, also reinforce this effect, this being able to arise, for example, from impurities that have slipped between the clip and the housing.
In addition, owing to the fact that the connector comprises several basic pieces, such as the two removable holding clips, the contact pins enclosed in the housing, the housing itself, and locking hooks, a large number of manufacturing steps are required and this also increases the production costs. In addition, these narrow contact pins are not designed for large electrical powers.